Beginner-friendly Linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is now available for download

Twenty years after the first release of Ubuntu in 2004, Canonical has made the open source operating system popular on the desktop thanks to the ease of use of its Linux distribution. After six months of development, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, aka 'Noble Numbat', has now been released with long-term support and will receive updates for five years. With Ubuntu Pro, the support period can even be extended to 12 years.

The regular Ubuntu 24.04 comes with the latest desktop environment GNOME 46, but Canonical has modified the interface as usual with a dock on the left side. Both Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server use the fresh Linux 6.8 kernel in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, which includes hardware support for newer components.

Canonical has further improved the Flutter-based installer first used in Ubuntu 23.10 for Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat. For example, there is a page for using accessibility options for people with disabilities, and automated installations are now easier. By default, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is installed in a minimal version, but it is still possible to choose a standard installation.

Python 3.12, Ruby 3.2, PHP 8.3 and Go 1.22 are available for software developers, and Ubuntu 24.04 also supports .NET 8. Linux gamers will also be interested to know that the Mesa graphics stack has been updated to version 24.0.3.

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) is now available for download for Intel/AMD based systems. Those already running Ubuntu 23.10 will receive an update notification shortly, while users of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS will be able to upgrade automatically with the first point release of Ubuntu 24.04 in the summer.